SCIFI.COM | Farscape: Journey Logs

I write to practice English. My name is Aeryn Sun. We are on Earth. I am learning a lot —

Frell that. Sebacean is faster. I don't want John reading this, anyway.

After we fixed Crichton's past ("Kansas"), we flew back through the wormhole to rendezvous with Moya above Earth, in the correct time period. Scorpius stayed behind in a Transport Pod monitoring a beacon that would guide us back through the wormhole to Tormented Space.

We emerged from the wormhole to learn that Moya had been in Earth orbit for some time. As a result, Crichton's father and some local dignitaries were on board our Leviathan, waiting to greet us. At first, Crichton didn't dare believe that he had truly come home, and I can't blame him. He's been tricked before.

But this time it was real.

The officials from Crichton's country, which has two names — Amereeka and You-Essay — gave us sumptuous living quarters and more than sufficient currency. We became famous. We were even on television. (Crichton's people are obsessed with television; they serve its programs as fanatically as Peacekeepers serve the chain of command.)

Earth's politicians wanted our friendship; its press wanted our pictures; its scientists wanted our technology. We gave them all that they asked for, as best we could. Crichton protected us from the worst of the onslaught, and the human security forces assigned to us were also minimally competent — at least against others of their own species.

I enjoyed meeting the people whom Crichton has told me about during the past three cycles. His sister, Olivia, loaned me clothing and books and proved, through many small acts of kindness, that Crichton's generosity runs in his family. His friend D.K. seemed friendly as well; he had married another scientist while John was away. Crichton was glad to see his old friend, but he grew tired of answering D.K.'s questions about the Leviathan-inspired modifications Crichton had made to the Farscape Module.

One person Crichton hadn't spoken of to me was his human girlfriend, Caroline. I imagine that she must have grieved after Crichton's disappearance, and I refuse to begrudge her the gladness she must have felt when he came home.

It was good to meet Crichton's father, the real Jack Crichton, at last. He told me privately that he believes John cares for me. I didn't tell him about Crichton's recent coldness toward me. Jack's consolation didn't make Crichton's indifference any easier to bear, but it showed me that Jack himself cares for me, and that means more to me than I'll ever admit.

Jack's government had designated him their "project director for extraterrestrial studies." Crichton argued with his father's decision to restrict other Earth countries from speaking with us or studying our technology. Crichton felt that allowing representatives from all of Earth's countries to travel aboard Moya would have a unifying effect. I agreed; Earth's countless warring nation-states are sadly primitive, and would benefit from the balance of technological equality. But Jack believed sharing such knowledge would be dangerous for You-Essay. He probably knew something I didn't. After all, Earth was not my place, not my home....

...and I knew that if I couldn't be with Crichton, Earth could never be my home.

And Crichton wasn't with me. Even after Caroline confessed to me that Crichton no longer loved her — even after Jack reassured me that he sensed John's connection to me — I knew that something was still broken between me and John.

I decided to return to Moya and wait out Crichton's visit to Earth; I had planned to count the solar days until I could return to my own part of space. Crichton was home; he didn't need me any more.

Except that he did. Somehow, a creature had followed us to Earth. It was vicious, strong and could turn invisible at will. Without more information, I won't speculate about its origins or how it got to You-Essay. It must have possessed some intelligence, however, because it had reached the planet surface undetected and tracked Crichton to his family home. And unless John or I could find its weakness soon, it would surely kill us both.